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Sunday, 23 August 2015

The Three Bears!

I thought you might like
to see my latest mohair bears! I’ve been busy beevering away, continuing to ‘learn the ropes’ of making mohair bears; and making mistakes along the way! But that’s
what it’s about at this stage. There’s a particular order to making the bears; and a few times I’ve realised too late I'd forgotten to do something! They
are all made of genuine mohair fabric, fully jointed with steel shot inside
their tummys, paws and legs; and with genuine glass eyes. They're all somewhere between 7 - 9 inches tall from top to toe!

Anyway, introducing Luca
(I haven’t been very inspired by names, but was watching ‘Tea with Mussolini’
last night and liked the name Luca!)

Luca is from a pattern
by Sylvie Touzard, bought from Noble Fabrics. I’m very pleased with him, because he has a really nice face. Luca’s
woolly jumper is my own pattern, which involved quite a bit of guess work, but
now I have the pattern for future use; and I love the burnt orange colour.

Next we have Finn, a
little sailor boy teddy

Do you like his little
top and matching hat? They were made from an old vintage tea towel I had picked
up ages ago at one of those vintage/craft fairs; and to that I added a small antique
style brass anchor charm. Finn is from the same pattern as Luca above, but made
from a different colour mohair fabric: I’ve also given him a smiley mouth instead …………….
another cutey eh!! It’s amazing how the same pattern in a different fabric,
with a different slant to a mouth or nose, can completely change the look of a
bear.

And now thirdly (and my
absolute favourite so far) is Lala. I just love the quirkyness of this bear. It’s
a straight copy from a free pattern I found on ‘Pinterest’ (a great place for
free patterns and inspiration generally).

Now I hope you will be
just a little bit impressed, because the pattern is in Russian! It’s by a very
talented lady called Irina Kunakh – she makes some really unusual bears. I just
love her little fat tummy (Lala’s not Irina’s!!) I loved the bear so much the
way Irina made it that I didn’t want to adapt it at all; I wanted the same
thing and was fortunate enough to find the exact (I think anyway) mohair fabric
at what has become my favourite bear making supplies shop. I luckily already
had some lilac polka dot fabric for her necktie, ears and feet pads – Lala’s
eyes are purple transparent glass. I’d like to be able to say I followed the
pattern because I’m so proficient in Russian!!!, but of course I’m not, I don’t
speak a word of it, so there’s no need to be too impressed LOL!! Thankfully
bear patterns go together in much the same way, so it wasn’t so difficult. It was
just things like the cotter joint sizes and eye sizes I couldn’t understand,
but they were easy enough to work out. One of the above mentioned mistakes with
Lala is that I should have used a thicker Perle cotton for her mouth and
eyebrows – they are there, but they’re not too easy to see because I used a No.
12 thread, whereas I should have used a number 8 ……. next time though!!

This last photo here is
Irina’s bear (called Lilo) so that you can see I’ve managed to be fairly true
to the original.

I chose the name Lala
for my version after one of my aunt’s who was nicknamed Lala (real name Sarah),
but apparently she was always singing …… “la, la, la, la” all the time. She died
young, so I sadly never knew her; and Lala is similar to Irina’s Lilo. You can
see Irina’s blog here if you wish, but do you speak Russian??!!!

EDIT 19.10.15What a lovely surprise - Lala has been adopted and will soon be on her way to her new home in South Wales!!

As I gradually improve
in the making of these lovely, special bears, my own style will definitely lean
very much towards the quirky style most of the time, although eventually I want
to be able to make and offer a variety of styles and sizes for sale.

I hope you love looking
at my bears as much as I am enjoying making them

6 comments:

Oh wow Julia, just read both your posts-how fabulous is your work! You are sooo talented and I am so excited to watch your journey and what a great financial supplement plan-no hardship there! Your attention to detail as always is incredible. Shazy x

Hi Julia :)Your bears are beautiful! In fact they are sooo scrummy I'm not sure that you are ever going to be able to be parted from them to be able to sell them, I don't think I could ...hahaha You truly are so creative and talented and your lovely bears reflect the care and love you put into making them :)Can't wait to see more!Hugs Wendy x x

About Me

Thanks for visiting my blog. I'm Julia, 57 years old and reasonably new to making Artist Bears, which are mostly One of a Kind. I try for a vintage, quirky style, with a bit of cuteness thrown in. Occasionally you will also see other craft projects, because I simply can't resist them!!